Share this:

Derby County will be without midfielder Bradley Johnson for the next month after video caught him biting Stoke City midfielder Joe Allen during Stoke’s 2-1 win in Championship play on Wednesday.

In the aftermath of Oghenekaro Etebo’s 33rd minute red card, Johnson clearly bit Allen in the shoulder/neck area during an on-field scrum. The referee did not see the incident, allowing the FA disciplinary committee to issue the four-match ban. All in all, Johnson will miss the next five matches, having earned a yellow card accumulation ban on Wednesday, having been cautioned for further participation in the 33rd minute scrum. That will keep him out until the December 29th match against Bolton.

The usual ban for violent conduct is three matches, the standard for a direct red card, whether it be for a violent foul during the course of play or outside it. However, the FA said Johnson had been “found to have committed an act of violent conduct for which the standard punishment would be clearly insufficient,” leading to the four-match punishment.

In an unusual turn, despite the FA handing down the punishment, Allen came out after the match to defend his alleged aggressor, saying, “it might look a certain way but he hasn’t bit me.” He didn’t think Johnson should be banned at all, saying, “he might have got a little bit of the shirt but nothing that I’m worried about and I don’t think it should go any further that that.”

Derby narrowly missed out on promotion yet again last season, falling to eventual champions Fulham in the playoff semifinals. They’re in the mix for a playoff spot again this season, sitting seventh with 31 points. Johnson has been a key player for the Rams this year, but recently lost his starting spot. He started eight of Derby’s first 12 matches, but the Stoke match was his first start in the last seven.

Crystal Palace beat Norwich City 3-1 at Carrow Road on the opening day of the Premier League season. Goals either side of half time from Wilfried Zaha and Damien Delany put Palace in a commanding position and despite Nathan Redmond’s dipping effort to half the deficit and the Canaries rallying, the Eagles scored again late on through debutant Yohan Cabaye to wrap things up.

The Canaries came flying out of the traps as Graham Dorrans fired an effort over and then Lewis Grabban was guilty of a glaring miss in the 11th minute. Steven Whittaker found him with a pass in-behind Palace’s defense but Grabban somehow shanked wide with the goal gaping.

Pardew’s side settled down as the half wore on and on the half hour mark John Ruddy pulled off a smart save from Glenn Murray’s shot. Palace made the new boys pay five minutes before half time as Jason Puncheon raced down the right and clipped the ball to the back post where Zaha slammed home. 1-0 to the Eagles.

In the second half Palace went 2-0 up in the 50th minute after some terrible defending from Norwich. A Puncheon corner was floated to the back post and Papa Souare had acres of space to send a header goalwards and Delaney swept home at the back post.

6 – Yohan Cabaye has now scored six goals in his last eight Premier League appearances. Return.

The Canaries responded well to going behind with Grabban causing problems and Alex McCarthy managing to scramble away Bradley Johnson’s follow up. Norwich went for it in the second half as Lewis Grabban and Alex Tettey were replaced by Cameron Jerome and Redmond. And bringing on those two attackers made the difference as Redmond picked up the ball and drove a shot home from 25-yards to make it 2-1 in the 68th minute. Jerome looked to have put Norwich level soon after but his goal was chalked off for a high foot.

Palace weathered the inevitable barrage of Norwich pressure late on, with a strong penalty shout for a push on Bassong being turned down, and Cabaye slotted home in stoppage time to grab an opening day win away from home.

Back in Premier League after a year in the Championship, the Canaries from Carrow Road showed last season they belong in England’s top flight. A scintillating finish to the regular season and rampant run through the playoffs proved just that, earning the East Anglian club their deserved place back among England’s elite.

The last time the Canaries were in the Premier League, the managerial duo of Chris Houghton and Neil Adams led the club to an 18th place finish.

Last season: Finished third in the Championship regular season, earned promotion to the Premier League through the promotion playoffs — After starting the 2014-15 season strong (top of the league on October 4), the Canaries faltered over their next 15 games and looked destined to miss out on the playoffs altogether, then they changed managers in January and went on to win 13 of their final 18 games, just missing out on automatic promotion by three points. Cameron Jerome, who was signed for just over $2 million before the start of the season, bagged 20 league goals to led the way, while Bradley Johnson (15), Gary Hooper (12) and Lewis Grabban (12) all reached double digits, as well.

Nathan Redmond, Norwich City FC

Star player: Nathan Redmond — The 21-year-old contributed six goals and 13 assists in league play last season, which are numbers he’ll have to somehow replicate in the Premier League this season to continue to English national team-bound career trajectory. While the likes of Johnson, Howson, Jerome, Hooper and Wes Hoolahan (more than 250 appearances for the club) are all undoubtedly important to the Canaries’ hopes of staying up this season, Redmond is the one transcendent type of game-changing player within the squad.

Coach’s corner: Alex Neil took took over at Carrow Road on Jan. 9, days after Neil Adams was fired. Neil, who is just 34, led the Canaries to wins in 15 of their final 22 league games. Following the conclusion of his playing career at age 31, Neil managed his final playing club, Hamilton Academical, for two seasons and won the club promotion to Scotland’s top flight in his first full season in charge.

PST predicts: Considering the Canaries went down for just a season, the current roster is still largely a Premier League-quality squad from two seasons ago — only Leroy Fer, Robert Snodgrass and Anthony Pilkington were players of consequence to leave after the 2013-14 season. Neil still needs to do a bit more business to further strengthen the squad before the Sept. 1 transfer deadline, but it’s been a summer of smart signings thus far. The one thing lacking from the Norwich squad as it currently stands: a proven Premier League goalscorer — Jerome and Hooper have scored just 36 PL goals combined.

After the clubs exchanged cross bar strikes from City’s Bradley Johnson and Boro’s Jelle Vosson, Norwich got on the board.

Jerome victimized Daniel Ayala and then dribbled toward ‘Boro keeper Dimitrios Konstantopoulos at a tight angle before firing between the legs to make it 1-0 Canaries in the 12th minute.

Norwich City keeper John Ruddy

And it was 2-0 within minutes, as the 15th saw Nathan Redmond bury a low, right-footed shot into the side netting.

Middlesbrough, of course, opened the second half with a desperate attacking idea that lasted the duration. That provided the opportunity for dangerous Norwich counters, but the Canaries took a while to find those chances as ‘Boro worked to narrow the deficit.

In the end, though, there was a class difference between the Canaries and ‘Boro. Norwich rarely seemed troubled by their promotion foes, and Alex Neil’s side are going up.